Perspectives of Library Staff on outreach activities of Library, University of Moratuwa

Abstract

Introducing outreach activities to an academic library is a novel experience to the university library staff. It's even considerable when the resource persons for such activities are managed by the library staff of the university. Aiming to serve the communities in the vicinity of University of Moratuwa, the Library launched several outreach activities. To review the outcome of these outreach activities, a survey was conducted with the library staff of University of Moratuwa as the target population. All the library staff members including academic, administrative and non-academic staff participated as the population. Data collection was done by using a semi-structured questionnaire. Forty-nine responses were received from the library staff members. Majority of the staff members had positive attitudes about the activities conducted by the Outreach Services Division. They felt the need of continuing such programmes as they had a positive effect on the helpful services offered for the learning environment of the children. The results revealed the positive commitment of library staff towards continuing outreach activities targeting lower age groups of the society for their future endeavors.